1,837 Topics
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| | When the Resident Evil 5 demo was released on Xbox Live and managed to get itself downloaded a staggering 1.8 million times in the first week, well everyone pretty much thought that was one Xbox record that was not going to be broken any time soon. But that was before … |
| | The [URL="http://www.asa.org.uk"]Advertising Standards Authority[/URL] here in the UK has ruled against Microsoft concerning a television advert for the Xbox 360 which featured a woman with half a head watching a movie being streamed via the games console. So what could possibly be the problem with that? Maybe there should have … |
| | A week ago I was reporting how 'leaked' documents were suggesting that the PlayStation 4 would [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3890.html"]build upon existing CELL processor architecture[/URL] with the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE). At the time I said that this was good news, not bad, in that it meant costs should be kept down …  |
| | Surprisingly, the answer could well be yes. At least if a bunch of computer science researchers at [URL="http://www.dur.ac.uk/computer.science/"]Durham University[/URL] have anything to do with it. The group have taken the 3D game engine that powers the immersive Half Life 2 game and used it to develop a realistic virtual simulation … |
| | Sony does not seem to have had a very happy Xmas if the various reports floating around the web are to be believed. Indeed, the third quarter financials which includes the holiday season show that the flagship PS3 console managed to sell some 440,000 units less than for the same …  |
| | Apparently it would appear that the Tomb raider franchise is not as healthy as it used to be. The days of movie spin-offs with Angelina Jolie would look like being long gone (was it really 2001 that the movie came out?) Indeed, publisher Eidos even had to renegotiate debt covenants … |
| | My youngest daughter got a Nintendo DS for xmas, complete with a bunch of cutesy games which seem to involve patting animals of various kinds. It is, of course, pink. Which has kind of summed up the DS, a handheld games console for the family which is all cuddly and … |
| | Games are dangerous, corrupting, evil things. After all we have been told that playing GTA IV is more harmful to kids than [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/19975/532/"]watching porn and drinking beer[/URL], and how the Nintendo Wii can [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22425/532/"]cause serious injury[/URL] to players and observers alike. Now, it appears, the truth is emerging. A brilliantly … |
| | According to the latest figures to be released, it would seem that as far as gamers in the UK are concerned Nintendo is the bees knees grabbing nearly half the market. The [URL="http://www.elspa.com/"]ELSPA[/URL] numbers show that the [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22425/532/"]Wii[/URL] managed to increase game software sales by 112 percent over the previous … |
| | Bloomberg is out with a story this week saying IBM will lay off 16,000 more employees, on top of the 15,000 the firm has already cut. Since economic recovery usually lags job losses, it’s another morbid sign that we’re still in the teeth of this economic hurricane. Note also that … |
| | CNN’s Rick Sanchez is the latest victim of the “Twitter” curse. Sanchez, a CNN on-air anchor, reportedly fell victim to a phishing scam that could undermine the investment rationale for Twitter by big investors, one of the most popular social networking sites on the internet. In a “tweet” on Monday, … |
| | It should come as no real surprise, but Microsoft has announced that [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1710.html"]Halo 3[/URL] is the undisputed king of games when it comes Xbox Live. The Xbox Live Director of Programming, the unlikely sounding Major Nelson, has [URL="http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/01/04/the-top-20-live-games-of-2008.aspx"]revealed[/URL] that when it comes to the games that were being played online … |
| | If you thought that gaming was all about next generation technology, HD graphics or innovative input systems think again. If the results of a survey into console usage in the US during 2008 is anything to go by, it would appear that gameplay is still in charge. The Nielsen research … |
 | Apparently the stinging failure of Windows Vista is a distant memory for Microsoft because they've cooked up yet another hair-brained idea to draw in customers: pay-as-you-go computing. [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10129438-92.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0"]Cnet has the details[/URL] today of a patent application filed by the company and I'm having trouble believing it's not Bill Gates' attempt … |
 | Everyone wants to know what's going to happen in the new year as if anyone can accurately predict these things. However, one can deduce, with reasonable accuracy, that there will be innovations that are designed to get our attention. This is my list of Linux-oriented predictions for 2009. [B]The keyword … |
| | Here in the UK, we take our video gaming pretty seriously. No more than at this time of year when more games are bought than at any other time. So the annual xmas sales charts are always much anticipated as a barometer of just what is winning the hearts, minds … |
| | Proving that no holiday is sacred, The Register is reporting today on not one but two scams involving fake products to be on the lookout for this shopping season. Graphics card vendor HIS sent out an alert that, despite [URL="http://news.softpedia.com/news/Graphics-Card-Maker-HIS-Joins-Netbook-Market-98967.shtml"]reports[/URL] to the contrary, the company has [URL="http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/12/05/his_fake_netbook_warning/"]not ventured into the … |
| | Now that, if you are a hardcore PC gamer, is cool. ASUS has announced the availability of what it claims is the world's first quad core gaming notebook. The G71 series is powered by the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 processor, and has had 'overspeed protection' removed to push it … |
| | An update on the report from the UK’s Financial Times and The Telegraph that Microsoft is all set to buy Yahoo’s search engine division for $20 billion: more media outlets are carrying the story on Sunday night, including Drudge and CNET. But CNBC found an inside source who claims the … |
| | Microsoft has kept it fairly quiet, no press releases or launch trumpeting, but it now looks like the Xbox 360 has been upgraded with the new Jasper motherboard. The new Xbox 360 has been spotted in the wild by the eagle eyed [URL="http://www.xbox-scene.com"]Xbox Scene[/URL] chaps and as a result we … |
| | I admit it, I love a good TLA. That is a Three Letter Acronym to you, guvnor. I have probably used BTW (By The Way) more than any other in close on 20 years of emailing and online discussions. BTW, did you know that today, right now, there are two … |
 | A typically eloquent contribution from my colleague Happygeek tells us a great deal about the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3522.html"]games console wars[/URL]. Xbox is outselling the PS3 but they're both being trounced by the Wii. So far so good, but my guess is that the Xbox will still be the long-term loser. And I'll … |
| | The news that a couple has split up because the man was having an affair with someone else playing Second Life - not that they'd met, you understand, they were having this online thing - and the wife wants a real-life divorce is no great surprise. They first met online, … |
| | I almost thought it was April 1st, but no it is actually just a couple of days before the election of the new President of the United States. Which probably accounts for why EA has apparently decided to develop a download content pack for the Mercenaries 2 game which will … |
| | With only a couple of weeks left until the Wrath of the Lich King expansion officially launches in many regions around the world, on 13th November to be precise, Blizzard Entertainment has announced a huge milestone for an online game. Yep, it would appear that global subscriptions to World of …  |
| | Have you ever wanted to move something with your mind or make the character in your game move when you move? I know I have wanted to do those two things and amazingly enough I have with the help of technology. I was at a tech convention with products not … |
| | Wow! Now that really is a hard question to answer isn't it? If you listen to what 'Barmy' Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO and 43rd richest person on Earth, [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20745/53/"]has to say[/URL] then you might be forgiven for thinking it is Google (I'm going to f****** kill Google), or maybe Apple … |
| | MDY Industries developed a popular World of Warcraft bot by the name of MMOGlider. Popular because, I would imagine, it took much of the donkey work out of progressing through the virtual world by automating repetitive tasks. You know, the boring stuff such as slaying monsters and scavenging for loot. … |
| | The games developers convention in Leipzig, Germany, has been used to announce that The Sims 3 is to be released world-wide on February 20th 2009. Electronics Arts is also set to release a limited edition collectors version which will come complete with a Sims 'plumbob' logo USB drive, a virtual … |
| | It would appear that Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, who won gold in the men's 100m breast stroke event, [URL="http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=195049"]has a Nintendo Wii to thank[/URL]. I was always told not to wee in the pool, but Kitajima had his Wii in the gym so that's OK then. Apparently, the Olympic swimmer … |
| | Oil is falling again, off $31 from its July high of $148 a barrel, but some analysts think this is bad news. Paul Kedrosky, a strategist at Ten Asset Management sees oil falling more and settling as low as $90 a barrel and takes his case to Tech Ticker today … |
| | Here’s a factoid that might interest you. The one-day record holder for a movie premiere is Spiderman 3, which brought in $59 million in ticket sales on its opening day. The one-day record for a video game – Grand Theft Auto IV – earned $310 million on its opening day. … |
| | According to [URL="http://www.biosmagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=6200"]BIOS Magazine [/URL] there is a new Xbox 360 Dashboard interface coming our way real soon now, like next month. In a move that has been designed to make it easier buy additional functionality as well as improve the social aspects of the Xbox 360 gaming experience, Microsoft … |
 | Claiming he was protecting San Francisco city government's computer system from incompetent coworkers, computer engineer [URL="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/22/BAGF11T91U.DTL"]Terry Childs[/URL] changed the system's passwords and then for more than a week refused to give them to anyone, even after being arrested. Childs was under four felony counts for blocking administrative access to the … |
| | Speaking before the start of the Microsoft [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/jun08/06-25GFWBigPicturePR.mspx"]Big Picture[/URL] gaming showcase in San Francisco, Jon Schappert, a Microsoft Corporate VP, took the opportunity to lay claim to Windows being the biggest gaming platform on the planet. Not Microsoft, you might like to note. Not the Xbox. But rather, and specifically, … |
| | [URL="http://www.zotac.com"]Zotac[/URL] has today announced the availability of what it claims is the fastest core clock speed for a graphics card straight out of the box. The GTX 280 AMP! Edition overclocks the NVIDIA GTX 280 card to top, are you ready for this, 700 MHz. OK, so it adds about … |
| | The official US PlayStation 3 blog has [URL="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/06/17/firmware-v236-coming-soon-v240-to-include-trophies-in-game-xmb/"]posted a confirmation[/URL] of the forthcoming firmware update. I think we can accept this as being genuine, seeing as how it has come from the Director of PlayStation Network Operations, Eric Lempel, himself. So no more speculation and rumor, the truth is finally … |
| | File under strange but true: an IBM developed supercomputer based on the same processor technology that powers the Sony PlayStation 3 has just been officially ratified as the fastest computer on the planet. According to the [URL="http://www.top500.org/"]Top 500 supercomputing rankings[/URL], published today at the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany, … |
| | According to an [URL="http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208401867"]Information Week[/URL] article, it would appear that gamers actually like the in-game adverts that they see while they play. Or rather Massive Inc, a Microsoft subsidiary that handles in-game advertising, has said as much. Gamers were surveyed and the results suggest that they will happily accept such … |
| | News is breaking that [URL="http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=11735"]Microsoft is preparing a 65nm GPU[/URL] for the next Xbox 360, codename Jasper and due in August. The most recent updates to the ever popular games console, namely the Falcon revision, seem to have helped a lot with RRoD failure: also known as Red Ring of … |
| | ORLANDO, Florida—Thousands of software developers and testers converged here this week for the Software Testing Analysis and Review conference, better known as [URL=http://sqe.com/stareast/]STAR[I]EAST[/I][/URL]. It’s one of just a few must-attend learning events for people in our field, and if you haven’t been to one of these events, you’re truly missing … |
| | According to [URL="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/29/gta_spyware_scam/"]The Register[/URL] gamers who are desperate to get hold of the latest entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and let's face it that has to be just about every hardcore gamer who did not get a copy today, are the latest target of drive-by spyware scammers. Spam …  |
| | How cool is that? A financial software programmer has put his coding skills to good use by hacking into a popular video game and adding an Easter Egg with a twist. Hold on a minute, you are probably thinking, surely you are not condoning the illegal hacking into a commercial … |
| | Speaking at the VoiceCon conference in London, Mike Rhodin, General Manager of [URL="http://www.ibm.com/lotus/uc2"]IBM Lotus software[/URL] has predicted five trends which he says will drive the future of unified communications, reshaping the way that we work around the globe. According to IDC, the unified communications market will be worth a staggering … |
| | According to reporters at [URL="http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/13450/14474/Manhunt-2-given-UK-release.phtml"]Pocket Lint[/URL] it would seem that the controversial ban upon the sale of the equally controversial video game Manhunt 2 in the UK has been overturned. The site reports that the Rockstar Games developed title has been edited to the satisfaction of the British Board of … |
| | Legendary guitar manufacturer Gibson [URL="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080312/tc_nm/activision_gibson_dc"]has warned[/URL] Guitar Hero developer Activision over an alleged patent infringement. It would seem that the crux of the matter is a 1999 patent by Gibson which deals with the technology used to simulate a musical performance. Gibson claims the Guitar Hero software and the Guitar … |
| | According to a [URL="http://www.yougov.com"]YouGov[/URL] survey published today by [URL="http://www.verisign.com"]VeriSign[/URL] the average UK consumer is worth £10,077 ($20,000) online in terms of banking, gaming and shopping accounts. The pan-European survey on consumer attitudes to online security concludes that UK Internet users are putting as much as £361 billion ($720 billion) at … |
| | It’s like the 1990’s again, with all of the big name merger and acquisition activity. We’ve read about Microsft and Yahoo in the last few weeks and now comes wind of a proposed $1.0 billion deal between video game titan Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive Software. EA is known for …  |
| | Microsoft and the US Army Sniper School have teamed up for a forthcoming Halo 3 tournament, and players will get a chance to participate in some US Army based pre-match training sessions. The special training videos provided by the army are to include sniper school training, heavy weapons training and … |
| | Nick Breese is a researcher with New Zealand based security outfit [URL="http://security-assessment.com/"]Security-Assessment.com[/URL] and found himself giving a presentation at the Kiwicon hacker conference in Wellington earlier this week. His presentation looked at the use of the PlayStation 3 games console to crack passwords, and Breese concluded that when compared to … |
The End.